Brennan Confirmation Vote Delayed Thanks To Senator Rand Paul (Video)

Sen. Rand Paul is holding up John Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA and will filibuster it if necessary, unless the administration responds to a specific question about the use of drones in the United States.

Paul accused Brennan of obfuscating on the issue when it was raised at confirmation hearings before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. Paul on Sunday said he wouldn’t vote for Brennan until the questions were answered, but he raised the stakes in an interview with Capital Download, a weekly video series on usatoday.com.

“He was asked a very specific question ‘Can you kill an American with a drone in America?’ And he refused to answer the question,” Paul said. “I find that very, very worrisome (and) we’re going to do whatever it takes to get the answer. Can the government, does the government, the president himself, claim the power to unilaterally kill an American in America without a trial?”

Appearing on Fox, this morning, Paul said, “I just can’t imagine the President Obama is going to assert the power to kill an American without a trial, without a judge, on American soil. That to me is very troubling – and really, I can’t let this nomination go forward until we get an answer.” When asked why Brennan couldn’t answer the question, Rand replied, “well…that’s pretty worrisome because a non answer implies that he really thinks he does have that power. And you have to realize that some of these drone killings that we’re doing overseas don’t target an individual who is named, they have what is called a signature strike, so there’s a line of cars coming from a place where bad guys live, we knock out the line of cars, sometimes. Do we really want that level of scrutiny to be for an American leaving a meeting of political radicals that are condemning something our government’s doing in let’s say, Houston, TX? You know, really, that’s not the kind on country we live in.”